“So you are the superior ones. The slappers of women, the torturers of old men.”
There’s so much going on here that it is impossible to keep track of it all, because of that there may be some spoilers.
“They Saved Hitler’s Brain” is really two movies. The first is “The Madmen of Mandoras”. This movie was made somewhere around 1963 and was about 64 or 74 minutes long depending on who you talk to. When the movie was sold for TV syndication it wasn’t long enough for a two hour movie slot including commercials. To remedy that problem an additional 18-28 minutes or so were added by some UCLA students hired for the occasion. Now the additional minutes were not added until somewhere around 1969 or so. No one is really sure. Between the time of the original movie and the time of the additional footage styles changed. The new footage has people with long hair, mustaches, sideburns and wide lapels. Also to lengthen the movie characters and plot angles were added that had only a peripheral attachment to the original movie. Mainly two characters Vic and Toni, two CIA agents were added.
The movie starts with the additional footage. (There are little snippets of the original movie peppered in among the new stuff) A scientist, Dr. Bernard, who was working on a secret formula that is an antidote to a lethal poison nerve gas is killed in a car bomb. His records are destroyed. However, he is not the only one who knows about the formula for the antidote. Professor John Coleman (John Holland) is also aware. Enter Vic and Toni (Tari Tabakin) who are investigating the death of Dr. Bernard. Toni finds out that Dr. Coleman has been kidnapped. She calls Vic to tell him. They shoot her. Vic finds Toni. Bad guys chase Vic. Vic gets killed. (Using stock footage from “Thunder Road”) Boom. End of additional footage. Now the rest of the movie is mostly original movie stuff but with snippets of new stuff to try to blend it all in. Just go with it.
Professor Coleman’s youngest daughter Suzanne (Dani Lynn) is kidnapped. Professor Coleman is kidnapped. A man, Teo Padua, (Carlos Rivas) tells Coleman’s other daughter, Kathy (Audrey Caire), and son in law Phil (Walter Stocker), Phil is a CID agent, that Kathy’s father was taken to the (fake) country of Mandoras, South America. Teo is killed. Kathy and Phil prop him up in a phone booth and head for Mandoras to find Kathy’s father. Once there they are being watched by the local police.
A man sneaks into their room. His name is Camino Padua (Carlos Rivas). He is Teo’s brother. He tells them a story about the war. At the end of WWII Nazis remove the living head of Hitler and spirit it away to Mandoras. Their plan is to resurrect the Third Reich some time in the future. Apparently the time is now. Teo leaves. More stuff happens.
The cops come and take Kathy and Phil and Suzanne (she kinda just pops in) to the home of the president of Mandoras (Pedro Regas). Now we get to the fun part. Hitler’s head in a box. The ultimate plan is to spread the poison gas around and kill everybody. Then Hitler’s head (Bill Freed) will take over and run everything. In the meantime the head snarls, grimaces, leers, and yells, Mach schnell! Mach schnell! Everybody reunites with Papa Coleman. Everybody escapes. The Nazi’s chase them. Hitler’s head has a to-go box they put him in so he can be in the chase. It looks like a glass cake saver. Handle and all. More stuff happens.
Suffice it to say it’s not a very good movie. You might be better off just sticking with the original movie “The Madmen of Mandoras”. That’s not real good either but at least you get to Hitler’s head in a box quicker. There’s too much plot going on and there are a lot of plot holes. It’s like cloak and dagger and science fiction/horror all at the same time. All in all too messy to keep track of. And you thought “Plan 9 from Outer Space” was bad. At least that one had a message. I only recommend this one for the head in a box. That’s pure gold.